Pressure sensitive adhesive tapes, which include a pressure sensitive adhesive coated on a paper substrate and are used as surgical tapes are well known in the art. It is appreciated that the inclusion of thermoplastic fibers having an average length of at least 1" in the paper substrate will improve certain qualities such as resistance to curling of the adhesive tape. However, adhesive tapes based on such paper substrates are difficult to tear in a straight line. See, for example, the tape disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,121,021.
Surgical adhesive tapes which utilize a paper substrate including wood pulp in combination with rayon fibers of an average length less than 1/2" are also known. These tapes tear in a very straight manner, but have a tendency to curl when removed from a roll. See for example, the adhesive tape disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,677,788. This curling has led to problems of adhesion when tapes of the kind disclosed in said patent are applied to a surface such as a human body. In particular, the adhesive tape has a tendency to lift at the ends. It was believed by those skilled in the art, that this problem could be solved by increasing the weight of the pressure sensitive adhesive mass on the tape, or by using a more aggressive mass, however, these solutions still did not completely alleviate the problem of edge lifting and an agressive mass increased skin maceration.